Franklin County State Sen. Norman McAllister says he's now trying to evict one of the women who is accusing him of sexual assault.
McAllister has pleaded not guilty to several criminal sex charges brought by three women. The Republican was suspended from the State Senate in early January.
When he was first charged in May 2015, prosecutors said McAllister let one woman live in a trailer on his farm in exchange for sex. The woman was also working on the farm at the time, according to the court documents.
The woman has apparently continued to live on the farm, despite the ongoing criminal case. On Tuesday, McAllister confirmed to VPR in an interview that he filed court papers last month to get her evicted.
"They never paid any rent," McAllister said of the people living in his trailer. "That's what started this whole thing," he said. McAllister suggested that the sexual assault charges only came about after he started asking the woman for rent payments.
On Tuesday, Court Operations Manager James Pelkey confirmed that McAllister had filed a civil suit in Franklin County Superior Court. But the documents are not yet public because the respondent hasn't been served with the lawsuit, he said. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday afternoon that it has not been asked to serve any eviction order related to the case.
The lawyer representing McAllister's tenant in a civil case against him, Andrew Montroll, did not respond to a request for comment.
But the civil complaint filed in September says the woman – known only as "Jane Doe" – did have rent money deducted from the wages McAllister paid her for working on his farm.
